Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Clemency petition for death-row inmate

The ARC Arkansas, an advocacy group for the mentally retarded, has issued a letter to Governor Beebe asking him to grant clemency to Frank Williams, a death-row inmate scheduled to be executed on September 9th. The letter comes in advance of an August 4 hearing before the state parole board, during which lawyers will argue that Williams should not be executed because previous courts failed to take his mental retardation into account.

Williams's application for clemency states that he has two medical reports confirming his mental retardation. In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Atkins v. Virginia, that executions of the mentally retarded are unconstitutional.

The execution, were it to go forward, would be the first under the Beebe administration.

Woody Allen returns to the Russian novel.

Readers also liked…

Gov. Asa Hutchinson apparently felt the burn from KARK's exclusive Tuesday night on his plans to cut state support of War Memorial Stadium in half beginning July 1, 2018. He has a so-far secret plan to make the stadium self-sustaining. We bet that doesn't include state support.

Matt Campbell, lawyer and Blue Hog Report blogger, has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Jay Chessir, director of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Mark Stodola related to the publicity stunt yesterday built around withdrawing from the mayor's rash pronouncement that the city would seek an Amazon HQ2 project even though the city didn't meet the company's criteria.

The State Police say Brett McCullough, 52, of Hot Springs, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding a bicycle about 8:47 p.m. Wednesday on Highway 70 West (Airport Road) in Hot Springs.

Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Bart Virden of Morrilton, who narrowly survived attack ads by an outside partisan group supporting his opponent for re-election to a nonpartisan seat, doesn't intend to let the matter drop.

KFSM reports that the Benton County Election Commission will recount votes today in two squeaky state House races where incumbents are currently on top by scant margins.

The Arkansas Supreme Court continues to grapple, with divisions, on how to square new federal and state law on resentencing people who got life without parole sentences for capital crimes committed when they were minors.

Enjoy these photos from today's dedication and re-installation of a new Ten Commandments monument. The first iteration of the monument was installed last June but destroyed within the next 24 hours when it was rammed by a man in a Dodge Dart.